\documentclass[final,letterpaper]{article}

\usepackage{url}

\newcommand{\baposter}{\texttt{baposter}}

\title{The baposter latex poster style}
\author{Brian Amberg}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
This is still only a very rough documentation, but it should be better than no
documentation. If anything is unclear, please post a request (preferably with a
patch) at the bugtracker.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
\baposter{} is a LaTeX template to efficently design pretty posters for
scientific conferences. Posters are composited of blocks with headings, which
can be positioned easily on the page, using absolute or relative positioning. A
number of predefined styles can be composed to generate new color schemes and
ornaments.

\section{Usage}
Refer to the included example posters for the overall structure. I will document the different keys here.
The main environment for the poster is the \texttt{poster} environment. It has the following structure
\begin{verbatim}
\begin{poster}{
  key=value options
  }
  {
    Eye Catcher, empty if option eyecatcher=no
  }
  {
    Poster Title
  }
  {
    Poster Authors
  }      
  {
    University Logo
  }

  Definition of the boxes

\end{poster}
\end{verbatim}
It should be immediately inside the 
\begin{verbatim}
\begin{document}
\end{document}
\end{verbatim}
environment, or there will be blank pages.

Additionally, you can pass some options for page size selection directly to the class file.
\begin{verbatim}
\documentclass[class options]{baposter}
\end{verbatim}

\subsection{Class Options}
The class options are

\begin{description}
\item [landscape/portrait] Page Layout
\item [a0paper,a1paper,a2paper,a3paper,a4paper,archE] Predefined paper sizes
\item [paperwidth=length,paperheight=length] Width/Height of the paper. Do not use together with a0paper or other predefined paper sizes.
\item [margin=length] Page margin
\item [fontscale=real number] Scaling of the poster. The poster is typeset with
standard font sizes on a `fontscale times papersize' paper, and then scaled up
by 1/fontscale to the chosen paper size. This ensures good looking font sizes.
So if you need to fit more onto a poster, increase the fontscale option to get
smaller fonts. But be sure not to choose too small fonts, or your paper will be
awful. I find posters with small print a nuisance, and tend to spend more time
with well presented and concise content. 
\item [showframe] Show a frame around the page, mainly useful for debugging.
\end{description}

\subsection{Environment Options}

The available options are:
\begin{description}
  \item[grid=\{yes,no\}]                Display a grid, which can be useful during the layout phase.
  \item[columns=4] Number of columns (default 4 in landscape and 3 in portrait format) (maximum number is 6)
  \item[colspacing=length]              Distance between the columns of the poster
  \item[headerheight=length]            Height of the main poster header (not of the headers of the text boxes).
  \item[bgColorOne=pgf color name]      First background color. There are two background color to allow for background gradients.            
  \item[bgColorTwo=pgf color name]      Second background color. There are two background color to allow for background gradients.            
  \item[borderColor=pgf color name]     Color used for the borders of the poster boxes
  \item[headerColorOne=pgf color name]  First color of box header. Two colors can be used to define gradients.
  \item[headerColorTwo=pgf color name]  Second color of box header. Two colors can be used to define gradients.
  \item[textborder=border type]         Which kind of border should the lower part of the text boxes have. Possible values are:
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item none
    \item bars
    \item coils
    \item triangles
    \item rectangle
    \item rounded
    \item faded
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[headerborder=header border type] At which sides of the text box headers should we draw a border. Possible values are:
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item none
    \item closed
    \item open
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[headershape=header border shape] The type of ornament of the text box headers. Possible values are
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item rectangle
    \item small-rounded
    \item roundedright
    \item roundedleft
    \item rounded
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[headershade=type of header shading] Which shading should be applied to the text box headers. Possible values are
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item plain
    \item shade-lr
    \item shade-tb
    \item shade-tb-inverse
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[boxshade] which kind of shading is applied to the text boxes. Possible values are
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item shade-lr
    \item shade-tb
    \item plain
    \item none
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[background=poster background type] Type of poster background. Possible values are
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item shade-lr
    \item shade-tb
    \item plain
    \item user: Use the command \verb|\background{...}| to define your own background.
    \item none
  \end{enumerate}
  \item[headerfont=font definition]      Commands inserted before a text box header is typeset.
  \item[headerFontColor=pgf color name]  Color that the header is typeset in.
  \item[eyecatcher=\{yes,no\}]           Should an eye catcher be shown on the
                                         left of the title page. The eyecatcher itself is defined in the second
                                         argument of the poster environment.
  \item[linewidth=length] Width of the lines used when drawing the poster.
\end{description}

\section{Author and Licence}
The author is Brian Amberg, and the class is distributed under the GPL.
The current version and documentation can be found at \url{http://www.brian-amberg.de/uni/poster/}.
\end{document}

